The Importance of Challenging Your Worldview in College

College is a time for many important things, and one of those is re-imaging the way you view the world. For many college first-year students, life has (up until this point)  been lived in one place with people of mostly similar backgrounds. Once in college, however, you will be exposed to a variety of viewpoints, opinions, cultures, and experiences that will be very different from your own. Many colleges recruit students and faculty from all over the country and the world, so there’s a good chance many of the people you meet will be from places you know nothing about. While this may seem scary to some, it is actually a great opportunity for learning and growth. By engaging with diversity in all its forms, you will be able to see things from different angles and expand your perspective to better understand the full complexity of the world. Recognizing socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, sexual, religious, and political diversity are important to seeing  the world through fresher, clearer, more well-informed eyes. Our worldviews are often limited by what we have seen in our own lives, so when we make a sincere effort to understand how people from different backgrounds understand the world around them, we learn new modes of thinking and encounter challenging questions we may not have previously been aware of. In seeking out new perspectives, your resulting opinions will be stronger, you will be a more worldly person, and you will recognize that there are always new things you can learn more about. Whatever  opinions you hold  now can continually be improved, updated, and amended. Here are some things you can do on or off campus  to make sure your time in college allows you to  critically reassess your views and opinions: Seek out people who disagree with you. It’s easy to get caught in an echo chamber of people who already share your opinions, but this doesn’t force you to challenge the way you think. Making an active effort to be friends with people with different political or religious beliefs will ensure that you don’t get stuck in an opinion bubble. Plus, when you have good relationships with people who disagree with you, you are more likely to realize that their opinions come from good faith, not from a radical desire to ruin the world. Advocate for unpopular opinions. This can be a hard role to play in conversation, but it’s important to be a voice that won’t just kowtow to the dominant ideology. When someone makes a claim, it’s valuable to be the one to push back on it (respectfully), since this can cause all people involved to more deeply examine why they hold their beliefs. You don’t have to play the devil’s advocate and stick up for opinions that you truly find appalling, but you can ask probing questions, critique arguments, and voice the viewpoints that nobody else is sharing. Explore unfamiliar topics. On college assignments, students have a tendency to write about things they are familiar with. This may make for easier work, but it doesn’t have the kind of benefits that learning about unknown topics does. When you do a research paper on a culture you know little about, or write a philosophy essay on a moral dilemma you hadn’t considered before, you will be able to learn with an open mind and grow in areas you hadn’t previously imagined. Sure, it might be hard to dive into an unfamiliar topic, but in the long-term, learning how to challenge yourself like this is sure to come in handy. Reflect on your own beliefs. Being away from home, college is a good time to reflect on where your beliefs came from. Sometimes  things that seem central to your identity are actually just a byproduct of your upbringing, and may not be what you really believe when you take the time to reflect. By really analyzing why you think what you think, you’ll often realize that a different way to think is just as or even more reasonable. Self-reflection is an important part of personal growth, and college – the hallowed place of learning – is the perfect place  to perform that growth process. If you are curious and bold in your thinking in college, your beliefs will change and grow throughout your time there. Although this thought may be disconcerting, the uncomfortable process of intellectual growth and development is exactly what college is designed for. Do you still need to help with your  college applications? We can help! Visit our  College Admissions  website and fill out our  FREE Profile Evaluation for personalized feedback on your unique background!  And as always, be sure to follow us on Facebook, YouTube, Google+, and  Twitter! By Aidan Calvelli.

Should The U.S. Have Gone To War In Iraq - 825 Words

Should The U.S. Have Gone To War In Iraq? (Essay Sample) Content: NameInstructorCourseDateShould the U.S have gone to war in Iraq?The rivalry between the U.S and Iraq started with the First Gulf War. The U.S action was because of the need for the replacement of the guarantees of the British to the sovereignty of Kuwait. The U.S employed the force of the military to obstruct the attempt of the Iraqi to settle a territorial claim and to forcefully solve the direct economic problem the Iraqis encountered after the war of the Iraq and Iran because of the debt of $100 billion to Kuwait (Webster, 11). The violence started declining in 2007, and the U.S gradually restrained its military availability in Iraq. The argument on whether the United States should not or should have attacked Iraq still goes on to date. In my opinion, The United States should not have gone to war in Iraq because of the substantial proof of the adverse impacts of the war that overpowers the positive effects of the war.Some of the reasons as to why the U.S should not have attacked Iraqi include the fact that there was no justification for pursuing the war (Webster, 15). There was no evidence of The Iraqis aggressive act against the United States that justified the war. There had neither been any attacks on the United States, nor threats by The Iraqis threats of war with the United States. War ought to be the last option of self-defense which should be pursued on condition that other alternatives or options have been depleted. War by the U.S is considered an aggressive act other than self-defense.Another reason is that Iraqi did not pose any present and clear danger to the U.S (De Castro, Maria, Ulysses, 141). The White House claimed that they ought to invade Iraqi as a way of preventing Saddam Hussein from utilizing weapons that could cause massive destruction. In the 1990s the weapon inspectors of the United Nations destroyed all of the major weapons of the Iraqis biological and chemical weapons and the missiles (long-range). Scott Ritter, a f ormer inspector of the U.N weapons and an Ex-marine, stated that the Iraqis presented no military threat against the United States (Recchiaxs and Stefano, 634).Invasion of the Iraq by the U.S diverted the U.Ss resources from other important priorities at home (De Castro, Maria and Ulysses, 150). The estimated cost for an invasion that is fully scaled added up to approximately $200 billion. The increased cost of the expense of the war would have otherwise been invested in the U.S health care system and the countrys overcrowded schools. The U.S should not have engaged in a war with the Iraq due to the great death that was caused by the war. The assault on the city of Baghdad resulted in many American casualties than the Afghanistan war. The toll in Iraq was terrible, and it led to the increased deaths of innocent civilians.The attack on Iraq was not necessary since there was no need to begin a war due to the need for oil (Bonds, 293). The administration of George Bush claimed that the invasion of Iraq was necessary since Saddam Hussein was assaulting his people and also installing weapons that would cause massive destruction. The U.S, at that time, was supporting the Pakistans nuclear-armed dictator leading to the conclusion that the war was basically about oil. People should not at any cost attack one another with the aim of claiming one anothers resources. There was also an increased opposition to the war by the Americans. The Americans knew dee...